Eleven of us got together at Central Station and headed off in the train to Helensburgh Station, where Tran was waiting for us. I got some confirmation for the direction to Metropolitan Tunnel from the station staff, which was where I thought it was – underneath the aptly named Tunnel Road, and we all headed off there. At first…
From time to time people ask me what I do if I run into other people while on a nude bushwalk, or more importantly, what the attitude of the authorities is to some casual nudity in our national parks. This walk managed to answer both questions, quite satisfactorily, with a group of rather amused National Parks and Wildlife staff saying their only criticism of our walk was the lack of gender balance! Spring has been nicely warming up, and a forecast promising plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the high 20’s in the mountains the conditions seemed perfect for a naked stroll through the mountains. I obviously…
Butterbox, Empress, Geronimo & Horseshoe Canyons It was a very sunny Saturday morning when I met Mary and Adrian at Leura. Not long after Ulla and Matt rocked off the train. I had been waiting for it seemed years (actually, only 11 months) to go down Butterbox Canyon, and this weekend was the perfect time for it. We excitedly drove out to the end of Mt Hay Road, only stopping shortly to give a couple of walkers a lift out to Lockleys Pylon. Heading down…
The later start time was great for a weekend sleep in, however, the trade-off was the crowded spaces and long lines. Additional bus services from Bondi Junction train station to Bondi Beach was running on the day, however, this could not keep up with the demand. The queue was about 30 m long. A few of us chose to do the 3km journey to Bondi beach by foot. It took…
We gathered everyone together at Woy Woy Station and set out in the three cars (with just enough seats for everyone), for the 20 minute drive to the Little Beach Car Park, the start of the walk. Then a car shuffle was made, leaving my car at Killcare Beach. The walk took us initially towards Little Beach, and then branched off to become the Bouddi Coast Track. Starting in…
Although I ran this walk as “Explore Mt Jellore” I was tempted to rename this trip report “Jellore, The Hard Way”! It was a lovely blue morning after a cold snap had dumped 15cms of snow in the Blue Mountains the day before , which would have certainly affected our walking location in the Southern Highlands. So with…
EDIT: FYI, the canyon called Penrose Gully in this trip report should actually be named “Crooked Crevice”, which is the name it was given by the first descent party. There’s no better inspiration for revisiting a canyon than the chance to show it to someone new, and be able to rediscover it through their eyes. I’d organised…
With extensive trackwork affecting much of the Cityrail network over the weekend, I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout for this trip. The first challenge of course being to navigate through the ‘rabbit warren’ of Central Station and find the bus stop for the South Coast line. With this…
Dargans Creek Canyon is one of those easy day trips that had been left on the back-burner for ages: too short to be worth spending a full day on; a far enough drive to make it an slightly impractical half day; and no abseils, so no good for teaching beginners rope work. I’d been to the area as a kid — nearly 20 years ago I worked out — and leaped off the water jump into the lower dam (a somewhat terrifying rite of passage for local kids for decades). I’d even…
The “PBT” is the SUBW President’s Bludge Trip to the Kowmung River on the October long weekend. The first PBT was in 1974 and they have been held every October long weekend since. This year, club president, Chantal, organised the walk to Hatchers Hollow, a large grassy flat near the river and its junction with Red Cliff Creek. A dozen…
Q Station at Manly has the reputation of being one of Australia’s most haunted sites. From 1830s to 1984 the Quarantine station was used to process migrant ships suspected of carrying passengers and crew with contagious disease. This trip was attended by a variety of people from first timers to the very experienced. Many night…
Everyone turned up at Circular Quay (not a single piker!), and off we went by ferry across to Taronga Athol Wharf. On the way Scott pointed out Fort Denison and I explained that it had been built in the 1830s to keep out the Russians. Essi from Finland (Russia’s next door neighbour) found it interesting that the Russians would want to come here! Once at Athol Wharf we set off along the path to the HMAS Sydney memorial at Bradley’s Head. Here we…
First up, let me mention that Devils Pinch has eluded Sky and I on two previous occasions, so there was no way it was going to beat us this time. Warm & sunny weather was predicted for the weekend, and even though it was still pre-season apparently, there was no way I was going to waste it. I arrived…
I love the splendid isolation of the Blue Breaks. Rugged sandstone plateaus, intersected by deep, plunging gorges, and almost completely untouched by modern man. I’d argue that they are among the most remote, wild, isolated places on earth — that still allows glimpses over a major metropolis. While it…
Well, I guess I’ll start this trip report with a description of the dedication of the 9 participants who attended this walk. In order to arrive at our starting point we had to first make our way into the city to catch the 6.45am L90 to Palm Beach. We had the bus time aligned so that we could catch the 9am ferry across to Patonga. As I was having a particularly lucky week, I decided to inquire with the water taxi as to whether they would match the ferry price. My luck continued and we were able to speed across the water to Patonga ever so slightly earlier and surely faster. With such a huge effort required in such an early start and time spent travelling, I was somewhat amazed that there were very few people who piked last minute on this trip.
A last minute call out for weekend ideas saw us settle on Boars Head, an abseil I’d wanted to do for ages. We quickly gathered an enthusiastic group and converged at Scenic World on Sunday at 9:30am. A short drive up to the Devils Hole exit and then a hop, skip and a jump up the road to the start and we were off.
We had lunch looking out across a beautiful view, before walking the final distance to Cowan Station. We said our ‘goodbyes’ and the half day participants were fortunate in having a very short wait for the train back to Sydney.
With some dropouts due to illness and misadventure, the walk was reduced to just the two of us, and it was easy to make a decision to walk to Pearl Beach instead of doubling back to Wondabyne as originally planned.
The gauntlet had been thrown down, and the challenge had been accepted by a handful of hardy souls — to go wet canyoning in the absolute depths of winter — and so Aussie FreezeFest was born. Julie had been trying for a while to get some interest in a local version of what has become an institution in the US, but for some reason people kept coming back with silly comments like “canyoning is a summer sport” and “you’ll all freeze to death”. Valid points,…
Well I believe this is officially the smallest SUBW group I have ever taken on a trip. Possibly the suggestion that those with fears of heights may not enjoy the day put some off, however with our speedy group of three we managed to have a fantastic day!